Is Microsoft Trying to Monopolize PC Gaming?

An eminent developer utters yes.
An explosion is infusing between Microsoft and one of its peek developer partners—and it could get nasty swiftly.

Tim Sweeney, co-founder of Epic Games, summons the Xbox founder of trying to take over game development for PCs and asked developers to claim against Microsoft, in an op-ed announced by The Guardian on Friday.

“In my view, this is the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made,” says Sweeney. “They are working to turn today’s open PC ecosystem into a closed, Microsoft-controlled distribution and commerce monopoly, over time, in a series of steps of which we’re seeing the very first.”

It’s specifically conspicuous that Sweeney would stand up strongly against Microsoft. Epic Games is a longtime friend of the corporation and the creator of the Gears of Wars series, which is one of the supportive authorizations on the Xbox. (In 2014 Epic handled the rights to the franchise to Microsoft.)

At concern, Sweeney says, is the comparatively recent Universal Windows Platform, which permits developers to generate a single program to execute on all Windows machines, varying from PCs and tablets to phones and virtual reality headsets. But to exploit those traits, developers have to accept Microsoft’s closed UWP ecosystem.

“I’m not questioning the idea of a Windows Store,” Sweeney writes. “I believe Microsoft has every right to operate a PC app store, and to curate it how they choose. … The specific problem here is that Microsoft’s shiny new ‘Universal Windows Platform’ is locked down, and by default it’s impossible to download UWP apps from the websites of publishers and developers, to install them, update them, and conduct commerce in them outside of the Windows Store.”

Microsoft’s Windows Store, where users who enjoy playing bingo at houseofbingo.co.uk and other social gaming platforms can purchase PC titles personally from the company, has been a disputable contestant in the gaming world. In the recent days, it needs many big titles. Valve Software’s Steam, which sustains an open development ecosystem, is the superior player in the business.

Sweeney says he suspects Microsoft is utilizing its size and potential to initiate a long-term attempt to control that market. In his memo, he appeals developers to refuse the attempt.

“Epic has prided itself on providing software directly to customers ever since I started mailing floppy disks in 1991,” he says. “We wouldn’t let Microsoft close down the PC platform overnight without a fight, and therefore we won’t sit silently by while Microsoft embarks on a series of sneaky maneuvers aimed at achieving this over a period of several years.”